Whiplash warning - ABC News backpedals on DC Madam story

If you watched last night's episode of 20/20 on ABC hoping to get a bit more perspective and info on the DC Madam case, you are probably as disappointed as I am. ABC has completely backpedaled on it's original claims that Bush Administration officials are on the list of clients of Palfrey and the tone of the piece was low-key when compared to the info that has already leaked out.

Last week, 20/20 reporter Brian Ross stated, "there are people there at the Pentagon, lobbyists, others at the White House, prominent lawyers — a long, long list." and "There are several thousands names, tens of thousands of phone numbers and they range from administration officials to lobbyists to advisers who are well known, people who appear on television, lawyers, and then just a lot of sort of ordinary businessmen and CEOs.

However, during last night's report Ross stated, "As usually is the case in Washington, much of it is dull. There are no members of Congress we can find in these phone numbers, no White House officials. Quite frankly, but for the few exceptions, most of the men on this list just aren't newsworthy." The 180 degree turnaround on this one is pretty stunning. I'm surprised that Ross wasn't forced to do the story in a neck brace. Backpedalling that fast can give a man whiplash.

Hardly anyone worth reporting? Let's look at who has been exposed in this scandal already:

The "AIDS Czar" and Deputy Secretary of State, Randal Tobias, has already resigned his position at the State Department because of his admitted use of the escort agency. Tobias reported directly to Secretary of State Rice.

An instructor at the US Naval Academy has been implemented in her work for Palfrey as a prostitute.

Dr. Harlan Ullman, the architect for the US "Shock and Awe" campaign at the start of the 2003 invasion of Iraq has been identified as one of her customers.

Grover Norquist, one of the key players in the so-called "Gang of Five" who are at the forefront of the current conservative movement in America. Norquist is one of the top leaders of the conservative movement and the Republican Party, currently the President of anti-tax lobbying group Americans for Tax Reform.

I just listed three administration officials and this is only the shortlist that has been announced so far. Yet Brian Ross and ABC are now brushing this aside as though it were not worthy of reporting. Then again, the mainstream media brushed aside the Jeff Gannon scandal as though it were nothing more than a schoolboy prank. What should we expect from them?

What do you think?

News - Feds announce 20 million chickens effected by melamine scandal.

The feds waited for the Friday data dump schedule to announce major news that 20 million chickens have now been effected by the growing scandal surrounding melamine tainted gluten being introduced into the human food chain. Waiting until late Friday afternoon to announce things is an old tactic, the news is overshadowed and little recognized because most Americans are just waiting to enjoy their weekends. In this case withholding information that involves the health and safety of the American public is inexcusable.

The federal agencies tasked with protecting our food supplies and health are still parroting the line that this issue is not a threat to the health of Americans, yet there is enough concern to hold USDA certification for these 20 million chickens until more can be learned. As I have discussed in an earlier post, the actual effects of melamine on the health of humans is vastly understudied and is basically an unknown factor.

What is equally concerning to me is how this has grown exponentially from the contamination of pet food, to an isolated case of tainted feed given to pigs, to a wide net of tainted feed for chickens. Yet every step of the way, the federal government tells us the same story. "Don't worry." "It's an isolated case." "There is no risk to the public's health and safety." And in each case we find the contamination has expanded, even to the point where 3 million effected chickens were sold and eaten by an unsuspecting public. And still, they trot out the same response, "Don't worry." only for us to learn days later that this scandal is ever growing.

I understand that the government doesn't want panic in the streets but at the rate this story has grown a panic in the near future is becoming more and more possible as it continues to worsen. They still cannot guarantee that the effected gluten has lept from simply being present in livestock feed, to use in processed foods. At first they claimed there was no evidence and no possibility that the effected wheat gluten had been used in any product but pet food, but we soon found that to be untrue.

Will we next learn that the same gluten was used to make the pasta that is sitting in our pantries?

Support the arts

I'm spending a little time this afternoon doing some maintenance to the blog and I've added links to a few blogs and websites belonging to musicians. Some of you may wonder what connection they have to conspiracy theory? They short answer is that they don't, but they share common traits with the typical CT enthusiast. Free thinking, alternate views of reality and tapping into creative expression; those are the traits shared with the typical CT enthusiast.

I'm very big on supporting artists of all art forms, these are people who I believe deserve all the web traffic, financial support and recognition that can be given. If you have any recommendations, or requests to have a link removed, please feel free to send them to me at theconspiratorsnest@gmail.com and I'll certainly respond. More will be added as time goes along.

In the meantime, click those links and if you aren't already familiar with the works of artist Mack White or musicians Henry Rollins, Mike Watt and Bob Mould, enjoy the trip and check out their work.

How many Juleps will the Queen have?

Back in my wilder, younger days a group of buddies and I made a road trip to the Kentucky Derby to see the infamous infield crowd first hand (WARNING: link NSFW). Like Mardi Gras, the Derby infield crowd is something to behold. Hunter Thompson's legendary article about the race and the crowd was what sparked that road trip and Thompson's description was dead on accurate.

Since the Queen is going to be at the running of the roses this weekend, my greatest wish is that she could be brought out into that mass of unwashed, drunken and depraved bodies. A good stiff Julep could brace her for what she sees, and she would be guaranteed to see a lot. It'll never happen but one can wish. I'm sure her pressence at the Downs will encourage the infield animals to be on their absolute best behavior this weekend.

Commentary - Who truly controls America?

Who truly holds the reigns of power in this country? This question weaves its way through the Conspiracy Theory community regardless of the theory being researched. Power, the gaining of and maintenance of said power, is the root thread in all conspiracy theories. Many researchers and enthusiasts point to the Illuminati and it’s connected components such as the Bilderberg Group, Freemasonry and other secret societies, and the Council on Foreign Relations. Just who is in power is worthy of debate and research, who is not in power is obvious. We, meaning you and I, have absolutely no power at any level in this country.

We are the bottom feeders in the food chain. When the average person thinks along the lines of class and finances we tend to think the rich are in power, and those with some riches seem to think so too. Both of those groups are sadly mistaken. True wealth, wealth that brings power to bear along with vast amounts of money is where the power lies. Several million dollars, an expensive infill home and putting the kids in private school puts you in the bottom feeder class with day laborers if you can’t bring true power to the equation. The only advantage that being rich provides is a little less discomfort in the day-to-day existence of life.

What is the source of true or pure power in America right at this moment? True or pure power comes in several forms but in the world of conspiracy theory there are only three areas where this power can be found. Controlling politics, finances and religion. All three intertwine in some theories but for the sake of this posting I’m going to address these three areas with real world examples of how this power is being wielded against us today.


Polemic Control

Regardless of whether you consider yourself a leftist, conservative, libertarian, environmentalist or apolitical; the true source of political power in America isn’t centered on the fair and honest operation of a government “of the people, by the people and for the people”. The true source of political power comes from the financial rewards offered by corporate America.

Laws are passed from bills written by lobbyists, of whom their allegiance is devoted to the companies they represent. The lawmakers allow this to happen for two reasons; to ensure they will get campaign contributions from those companies and their executives and to ensure that once they leave public office they will be guaranteed a paying position with either the corporations or the lobbying firms. The companies involved in this scheme need this full and complete control of legislation to ensure the aspects of government that were created to regulate their growth and exercise of power over the American public, are not unleashed upon them.

All that is left to do is keep the American public ignorant of their work, which is easily accomplished by controlling the mass media and by creating bills that are so large and complex that the average American will never be able to decipher the contents no matter how much time they are given to study the bill. It also helps to distract the public by creating inner worry and turmoil in their lives by controlling the economy and providing them with mindless entertainment that helps them to pass their time while they worry about bills and being employed.

From this work a small cadre can wield true and pure political control over the public at large. There will be no secret conspiracy to cover up and covert methods to operate are not needed. The conspiracy can be carried out in full view without worry of retribution because the layers of corruption are too deep and too overwhelming for one person to expose, and even then, what could one person do?


Economic Control

As I mentioned in the description of Polemic Control, the use of Economic Control can be used to meet the goal of gaining even more power or maintaining the power that is already held. The central aspect of economic control in America is the dwindling number of companies that provide goods and services. All goods and services in this country are controlled by a small number of groups, which grow larger by mergers and buyouts, which reduces their numbers even more. The power and wealth becomes concentrated and the resources for them to continue this trend expand exponentially at each merger.

Look at your paycheck and think of where it must go before you have, if ever, money left over. Food and shelter are your main concerns. Transportation and maintenance of your goods and life follow. By time you are done with the monthly bills, how much of the money that you worked so hard to earn is left? Very little and that amount is dwindling weekly.

You need a place to stay, be it a house that you are paying to own or an apartment that you rent. There goes the largest chunk of your hard earned pay, a place to live. You have to eat and no matter how much variety you have in your diet or how little you may eat, the foods you buy are made by a small number of companies. 98% of all poultry is produced by a small number of companies like Tyson and Cargill. 50% of all agricultural products that are produced come from just two corporate farming companies. 80% of all beef slaughtered in America is produced and owned by just 4 companies. 60% of all pork produced in America comes from just 4 firms.

You need water, heating, garbage services and sewerage services where you live. Not to mention electricity and possibly gas for cooking and heat or oil for heating your home. Now the utilities are being scoured by private buyout firms, looking to plunder your checking account and the money held by the communities where those services provide a vital service. Gas and oil are subjects all to themselves. The billions of dollars made in pure profit every single month by even the most ineptly managed oil company are staggering.

The money grab is non-stop and against you, the government will not stop it because the companies have already bought and sold our government. The mega-companies will continue to narrow in number, prices will always escalate and quality in their products will always deteriorate.


Theocratic Control

Founder of the Christian Coalition, Pat Robertson, has never made it a secret that the goal of the Christian Coalition and the offshoot groups that orbit around this movement, Regent University which was created by Robertson and the people who align themselves to this movement; are actively engaged in taking control of the American government so that they may shape the laws of this nation to suit their beliefs and not yours.

Their success has been astonishing as it has only been of late that the tip of the iceberg has been seen. One revelation in the scandal about the firings of US Attorneys, it was learned that over 150 graduates of the Regent law school, a Tier-IV university, are employed at various levels of power within the US Justice Department. Just how deep this infiltration of our government by agents of the theocratic conspiracy goes is unknown.

This group bypassed economic control and instead aimed for a polemic means to their ends but their connection to the polemic and economic forces are strong. The reason is simple. It’s not because the politicians and people who hold power over politicians have a deep-seated faith in God. It’s not because Big Business are Christian men and women who wish to share their wealth with the impoverished. The reason they have allowed this group to gain the power they now have is that they are enablers for the goals of the people who hold polemic and economic power.

The Theocratic power base accepts the money given to them and the money that they are allowed to share in as they promote the needs of Big Business by placing themselves in positions that will allow them to control the mechanisms that control companies. The movement into the Justice Department by the religious right-wing is a sign of this as that department can control investigations into corrupt business practices.


How this affects you, today.

Today is Friday and most of us get paid for our work on this day. Let’s look at your routine after work and see how it empowers the conspirators who wield power in America.

After you get off work you’ll probably go to the grocery store. On the way to the store you may pass a gas station and notice that gas is now $.10 higher per gallon than the last time you filled your tank. You may even consider how much it would cost you to convert your car to Ethanol or Bio-Diesel. When you get to the grocery store you get sticker shock. Almost everything we eat now is made with corn.

Corn is at historic all-time high prices because of two things. The fuel needed in the growing and harvesting process for the corn is at outrageously high levels and corn is in demand outside the food market for use in creating Ethanol, the higher cost gets passed to you. The cost of fueling trucks that transport the food to the wholesaler, then the distributor and then to the retailer is higher; the higher cost gets passed to you. The grocery store has to pay higher rates for electricity to light the store and keep the freezers going as well as a higher price for the goods they sell. The higher cost gets passed to you.

You drive home, maybe stopping for gas at a station that’s $.03 cheaper per gallon than the others. You get home, use gas to cook dinner, burn electricity to see what you are doing and watch TV, of which the cable rates have gone up 45% over the last 10 years, and you worry about the bills you have to pay this month with what little is left from your paycheck.

Your income is steadily dropping and there is no such thing as job security no matter how hard you work or how good you are at your profession. The profits made by the companies that are eating more and more from your paycheck are much higher now because the price of raw materials has skyrocketed. Their bank accounts are bulging at the seams while yours is frighteningly short. Big Oil has even said they don’t even know what to do with all the extra cash they are floating in.

You can’t look to the government for relief because they are in the pockets of Big Business and they are busy mopping up such things as war, terrorism, corruption and foreign policy. Sorry but they are just too busy to do something about your monthly bills.

So, what’s left for you to turn to but God? Guess who’s got that market cornered too?

To believe in evolution you first need to have opposable thumbs

In last night's Republican debate, three of the hopefuls (Brownback, Tancredo and Huckabee) admitted that they do not believe in evolution. This admission will go down well in Preacher Cletus' church, I'm not so sure about the rest of us.

Watching dangerous fools fight for power is entertaining as well as terrifying, especially when not a one of them has an original idea between them. After more than an hour of watching these power brokers slavishly worship at the alter of Reagan I came to the conclusion that only Ron Paul is sucking from a different bottle than the others.

I also have one question. Do the 3 who sheepishly raised their hands to the evolution question, really and truly not believe in evolution or did they raise their hands simply to get the whack-o religious freak vote? To be honest, I'm not sure of the answer to that question. It not beneath a politician to lie, but this bunch of Republicans strike me as being intellectually burnt stubs.

News - Instructor at the Naval Academy worked for DC Madam

(July 10, 2007 - For updated posts on this story please click here.)

The Navy Times is reporting that an instructor at the Naval Academy worked as an "independent contractor" for accused DC Madam, Deborah Jeane Palfrey. This is actually a major revelation for two reasons:

1) The background check that is required for such a position should and would have found this little nugget of her life. The reason why this is important is because her background would leave her open for blackmail and the possible coerced use as an intelligence agent.

2) It's possible that her background as a prostitute and position at the Naval Academy could make a powerful intelligence and counter-intelligence agent for our own Intelligence Community.

Palfrey has also placed a partial list of her clients in the form of one of her phone bills online at her website in .PDF format. Click the link here for a copy. The partial list does not name names, but the phone numbers and the locations listed are interesting reading, especially the multiple callers. What is even more enlightening is when you discover that the list covers 5 days in 1996. I wonder if Dick "Toe Sucker" Morris was a client?

ABC plans to air the Palfrey interview tomorrow night on their show 20/20. I may catch it just to see the "tone" of the story. For an earlier post I wrote about a possible CIA role in this story, please click here.

Up against the wall redneck mother

We do two things exceptionally well in Atlanta. Praise ourselves and embarrass ourselves. We haven't had a lot to praise of late.

There was a time when the opinion about this city in the national consciousness was that it is a progressive city with jobs and hope and prosperity, a place where a person can redefine themselves and make a good, decent, honest living. Now the opinion is tainted by the police force murdering an elderly woman and planting pot at the scene to hide their crime. Other longstanding "image" issues about the police force have been coming to the forefront of late.

I'm not going to bash the police simply because it's an easy thing to do or a rebellious act or even because its the type of thing that an outsider simply does. But we do have a major problem with the quality of our law enforcement in this city and it's been festering for a long time. It would be easy to dismiss this as just a handful of bad cops, every police force has them, and it would be easy to minimize the problems by comparing them to the historic problems that Philadelphia and Chicago had in the 60's and 70's.

I'll admit that I have a great deal of respect and admiration for our current Mayor. She has taken on the financial and operational problems left behind by her predecessors and has begun the process of getting the ship back on course. Her biggest mistake however, was hiring Chief Pennington. I've been to New Orleans many times in my life. I *know* how rough that city is and how the cops have a certain reputation there. When I first heard that the Police Chief from New Orleans was in the running for the job all I could think was that this was a bad idea.

What are we dealing with now? Other than the horrible situation that the police created when they shot and killed poor Kathryn Johnson we still have the issue of suspicious killings in several other cases. Most notably the killing of Jamal Smith in Buckhead. Not to mention the fact that the Dekalb police seem to have a shoot first ask questions later attitude when it comes to criminals, I mean citizens. Now, Creative Loafing's John Sugg has written about problems within the department related to several notable cases of lying by police officials and ethics violations.

I know there are rotten eggs in any organization, especially large organizations where power is concentrated. But to be honest I can hardly believe or trust what is said down on Ponce. City Hall East needs to stop circling the wagons and boot the rotten eggs, otherwise we are going to wind up with a scandal that would make Frank Rizzo blush. If the leadership in this city doesn't get on the ball and make some hard choices we are going to look as bad as Dekalb County did when Derwin Brown was assassinated. Do we really want that to happen?

News - The British Monarchy visit Virginia

With this week's visit to the "colonies" by England's Queen Elizabeth, its worth noting the population control beliefs held by her husband, Prince Philip. In his forward to the book "If I were an Animal" the Prince wrote,

"I just wonder what it would be like to be reincarnated in an animal whose species had been so reduced in numbers than it was in danger of extinction. What would be its feelings toward the human species whose population explosion had denied it somewhere to exist.... I must confess that I am tempted to ask for reincarnation as a particularly deadly virus."

At least he has better ideas about reincarnation than his eldest son.

In the preface to the book "Down to Earth", the Prince wrote,

"I don't claim to have any special interest in natural history, but as a boy I was made aware of the annual fluctuations in the number of game animals and the need to adjust the ``cull'' to the size of the surplus population."

And if that weren't enough to make your head spin, from the same book,

"What has been described as the ``balance of nature'' is simply nature's system of self-limitation. Fertility and breeding success create the surpluses after allowing for the replacement of the losses. Predation, climatic variation, disease, starvation--and in the case of the inappropriately named Homo sapiens, wars and terrorism--are the principal means by which population numbers are kept under some sort of control."

With the Prince's beliefs in mind it is worth noting that the Royals trip to Virginia will also include a private audience with the Queen and the families of the victims of the VaTech massacre. It makes you wonder what the Prince thinks of Cho's "culling" at the school.

Is the CIA behind the "DC Madam" scandal?

Last week I posted that the VaTech shooter's use of a prostitute was a similar behavioral pattern shared with other possible mind control subjects. This has made me think a bit more seriously about the still simmering "DC Madam" scandal. Is it possible that some of the remaining veteran spooks at Langley are using the oldest trick in the book (no pun intended) to get back at the neocon hypocrites?

For those unfamiliar with the DC Madam story the short explanation is that a woman by the name of Deborah Jeane Palfrey was recently arrested for running an escort service in the DC area. Her clientele is rumored to consist of high level government officials. Among the first to be stung for their dalliances is Deputy of Secretary of State Randall Tobias. Tobias, the Presidential appointed "AIDS Czar", who was quoted as saying that being "faithful" is a way to prevent AIDS, seems to not know the meaning of the word hypocrite.

On Thursday of last week, Tobias admitted he did use the escort service run by Palfrey and would call up "to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage." He claimed there was "no sex" in these massage encounters. Yeah...right...Ted Haggard already tried that one when the gay prostitute and crystal meth story first broke last year. It didn't work too well for him either.

Palfrey was pretty smart, apparently she maintained detailed lists of her clients. I don't know if this will be the equivalent of a "Get out of jail free" card but at the least she can have the pleasure of bringing down the hypocrites with her if she gets the heat over this. ABC news has possession of a copy of her list. Why they do no not provide a true service to this country by naming names I can only guess.

So, is this an example of Operation Midnight Climax being carried out in 2007? So far nothing leads me to believe that it is an agency job. The curious thing is that the rank and file career minded spooks are among the walking wounded from the Christian Coalition drones and Neocon lovers of the Bush administration. Would it be beneath them to pull out the oldest trick in their little black book of dirty tricks? Of course not. Whether the agency set this in motion or it just happened as so many criminal enterprises eventually lead to is possibly a side story in what could be the best Washington sex scandal in many years.

At least this one isn't as dark and disturbing as some others. Even the Minnesota Monitor is pondering the possibility that the emerging scandal is being smokescreened to take away its attention by giving us some al-Qaeda capture stories.

Cryptome..RIP??

If you spend enough time browsing CT themed message boards sooner or later you are bound to be checking one out at the same time another CT message board is down. The comments are always guaranteed to have at least one poster questioning whether or not the feds have shut down the site, or more ominously, taken it over. CT forums go down for maintenance, hack attacks or simply failing to pay the bills but one site that stays on the radar for a lot of people, myself included, has gone dark.

Cryptome is the site John Young has operated for a number of years that has really pushed boundaries of the type of information you can post and get away with it. He doesn't post conspiracy theories but his documents can often lead the CT researcher down some interesting side alleys of the Intelligence Community. He's had many threats from alphabet agencies over the years but it looks like someone finally got his hosting company, Verio, to pull the plug and the site is sitting in timeout limbo right now.

I'm hoping Cryptome returns, anyone who raises the scorn of the FBI *and* Readers Digest is okay in my book.

Anniversary of the sinking of the General Belgrano (USS Phoenix)

The USS Phoenix (later ARA General Belgrano) seen as it steams past Battleship Row, Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.

25 years ago today the British fast attack submarine HMS Conqueror made history when it became the first nuclear powered submarine to sink a surface vessel with torpedoes on a combat patrol. The sunken ship, ARA General Belgrano, began life as the USS Phoenix (CL-46) and ended it by taking 323 men with her. The controversies that rose from this action are well documented, as are details of the combat patrol made by the crew of the Conqueror.

Since the war cheerleaders rarely think beyond the "Top Gun" style of military knowledge and history, it's always good to bring out a historical tragedy from war. The hawks who parrot, like Ed Rogers, never appreciate it when you "wave that bloody rag" in their face.

Paging Upton Sinclair.

Keep your eyes open for the name of author Upton Sinclair to come up in an article or two as the year progresses. The recent food safety issues that have cropped up in the US and the release of director PT Anderson’s film “There Will Be Blood” should be enough to bring Sinclair’s work back into the national consciousness, even if it’s a fleeting mention. Have we really changed at all since his day and time?

Sinclair was the type of person we are sorely lacking in today’s political and social scene. An intellectual who’s interest seemed to lay far more with the common working man and the impoverished than with the academic, political and economic elitists of his time. He was a pure leftist, who brought his populist ideas to his work and even ran in several gubernatorial races in California, and is still a decisive figure to the far right-wing nearly 40 years after his death.

While the full scope of Sinclair’s novel “The Jungle” doesn’t seem to be on the radar of the country one facet of the story, our food safety, is beginning to gain attention once again. It seems we have a weekly food recall. E-Coli, salmonella or some other bacterial contamination of our food keeps rising to our attention. Now we have the melamine controversy where it appears that the government is spending more time keeping the full extent of the problem out of sight than they are keeping us informed of what they are doing and what we need to be aware of. Has the government, or any health agency for that matter, told us what could be the symptoms and risks of melamine to the human body? I haven't seen a mention from the feds on the effects or symptoms from day 1.

The main problem with the melamine story is this. The CDC, USDA and FDA have said over and over that they can find no indications that there has been a risk to the health of the public from this event. They have also released statement after statement that the risk has been minimal and “no problems have been detected to date.” The problem with those statements is that very little is actually known about the effects of melamine on the human body. The subject is understudied and what we do know is that the permissible level of melamine in human food that is mandated by the government is zero. None.

So how can the government, in good consciousness, tell us to not worry when they themselves know very little about how this triazine compound effects us? We are getting a much more clear picture from China, where this originated, that the profit eager and safety absent industrialists of that country are spiking their foods with high levels of melamine. Perhaps this is all a larger, global version of the Tuskegee Experiment? I’m also sure that the US Intelligence Community will be as eager to see what the long-term effects are just as they were interested in US cancer rates during and after the period of atmospheric nuclear tests.

More on the honeybee mystery

I've found some interesting articles online relating to missing honeybees mystery. Now that the mainstream media has milked the doom and gloom for all it's worth and moved onto a new scary plaything or two, the real journalists may get a chance to actually write insightful articles about what's going on.

Iafrica.com has some interesting pieces of info that adds to the missing bees mystery. An African bee expert, Garth Cambray, claims that, “constant inbreeding among North America’s 30 queens has weakened their genetic strength and caused them to become genetically useless.” The article states that honey prices in Africa are rising due to their stocks of honey being exported to America to overcome a shortage of 40,000 tons in the US market. This makes me wonder if the estimated loss of 25% of the North American population of honeybees can effect the price of all foods if there is a smaller crop output due to the problem? We are already seeing the increase in prices at the grocery store due to the higher fuel costs that ultimately get passed along to the consumer (us).

The York Daily Record is reporting an interesting theory that a commercial beekeeper in Franklin Township, Pennsylvania has to offer. Mike Thomas, owner of Bjorn Apiaries ponders whether or not nicotine based pesticides are at the root of the problem, "We've already been working these animals to death," he said. "But with the nicotine pesticides, the bees may finally be saying enough is enough." I tend to listen when an agricultural businessman comes up with theories. Their livelihood is centered around knowing and understanding arcane details of their trade. Spend an hour or two talking with an old farmer and you’ll understand what I mean.

I wouldn’t want to be a farmer in Georgia this year. Here it is early May and they are dealing with a severe draught with no end in sight, a late freeze which damaged crops, higher operating expenses due to the ever rising fuel costs with no peak price in sight and the possibility that their crops could be smaller because honeybees have mysteriously vanished.

Commentary - Think it's hard following national politics?

Even Eugene Talmadge would shake his head at this mess.

If you think it's hard following National politics try following local politics, especially in Georgia. Earlier this year the state Democratic Party brought forward a complaint to the State Ethics Committee against the Speaker of the State House regarding what has been described as an "improper" and "personal" relationship between the Speaker of the House and a lobbyist for the Atlanta Gas Light Company (AGL). At the time of the relationship, the Speaker co-sponsored a bill that was to have financed a $300 million dollar pipeline for the company. I may be a paranoid "Joe Six Pack" but even I know this is wrong and there is no amount of rationalization in the world to make it right.

What became of the investigation? Dismissed by the Ethics Committee, half of whom were appointed by the Speaker. Nice catch, Richardson, and a tip of the hat to the 12 members of the "Ethics Committee" who let this get swept aside. You folks are really representing your constituents well and you sure are making an effort to "earn" your keep. All sarcasm aside, we need to send a truckload of hand baskets from Atlanta to Helen, because that's where this state is going.

insideradvantagegeorgia.com, a political clearinghouse for Georgia political stories ran a poll regarding the Speaker's ethics problem and the results are pretty sad. 71% of the poll respondents didn't know or were not aware that there was even an ethics complaint against their own Speaker. Our mainstream news sources here in Georgia are no different than the Big 5 of the nation who blabber away about nothing, real stories that have an impact are pushed aside for fluff and distractions while the real news, the events that effect all of us get a fraction of the time spent discussing whether or not Mr. Mexico gets high at the dog fights or not.

In light of this I have to say that it's a shame that Ralph Reed didn't win the Lt. Governor seat. A Bible waving crook with no moral compass always knows his way around the gold dome. He would have been a better fit for the Georgia legislature.

News - Melamine contamination hits the food chain, 3 million strong

This whole melamine story just keeps getting worse the longer it drags out. 3 million chickens that were fed melamine tained feed have already been introduced to the food supply and consumed:

http://www.horsesass.org/?p=2871

In a conference call with media this afternoon, USDA Assistant Administrator
Kenneth Petersen revealed that as many as 3 million chickens, contaminated with melamine from a single Indiana feed mill, have already been slaughtered, distributed and eaten. An additional 100,000 breeder chickens are currently being voluntarily quarantined by farmers.These 3.1 million chickens represent only those that fed on a single batch of feed made from melamine-tainted pet food “salvaged” in February. Petersen told reporters that the “investigation will lead to additional farms.”

So, how many of you have eaten chicken over the past month? Will someone please remind me as to why we pay the salaries of the USDA and FDA managers who are tasked with maintaining our food safety?

Four years ago today - News roundup

How time flies.

President Bush to address the nation at 6:10 this evening. Topic of the address is being reported as being his forthcoming veto of the Iraq spending bill:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18412464/

Third in line to the British Throne headed to Iraq:

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7007211028

More than 100 US troops killed in Iraq during the month of April:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/world/365069,CST-NWS-iraq01.article

1Q oil company profits rise:

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews/business/360479,3_3_EL27_OIL_S1.article

NATO risks losing the war in Afghanistan:

http://themoderatevoice.com/politics/2008-elections/12554/afghanistan-nato-risks-losing-the-war-holbrooke/

and...

I want one of Kurt's flannels, or maybe that babydoll dress he liked to wear on stage. Anyone got a couple 'o grand to loan me? Courtney Love to auction Kurt Cobain's possessions:

http://www.rte.ie/arts/2007/0501/lovec.html

Commentary - Nine questions the Fourth Estate are ignoring.

Three weeks ago today, Seung Cho-Hui fired over 170 shots, killing 32 people. The mainstream media have left a huge amount of unanswered questions on the table, focusing now on the question of gun control and mental illness. What we know and what they will not report or follow-up is staggering.

1) A direct connection has been made between the shooter, The Unification Church and Manna Christian Fellowship; two extreme right wing religious followings. If the media wishes to report and speculate about the late Pat Tillman’s religious beliefs (atheist), when that had no effect on his work, why not address the cult and extremist connections to the shooter? We know the answer to that question but it is still worthy of asking ourselves the question.

2) A direct connection has been made between the shooter, the US Intelligence Community and the Military-Industrial Complex. Only a fleeting reference to McNeil Technologies has ever been made with no follow-up or closer examination.

3) The shooter’s behavior and background are virtually identical to every assassin the US has produced since Lee Harvey Oswald, yet little attention is ever made of this distinction.

4) On the day of the shootings the press announced the type of guns the killer had, the fact that he had a receipt in his possession for the guns and that the serial numbers had been filed off said weapons. It’s common knowledge that filing off the serial numbers have no effect on identifying them as the pressure required to stamp these numbers leaves a signature that can be seen. The media has not looked at the almost Oswaldian connection that the receipts have. The infamous backyard photos of Lee Harvey Oswald bear a striking resemblance to this case, even down to altered serial number on Oswald’s Carcano rifle.

5) The advanced skill displayed by the shooter hasn’t even been address by the mainstream media. The “video gamer” excuse didn’t even get airtime because no one asked a simple question, “How could a person with apparently no weapons training carry out such a skilled attack?”

6) More time and energy was spent analyzing the meaning of Ismael Ax, as though it were some Kane-like “Rosebud”, than has been spent trying to understand why a major news outlet like NBC News would apologize for doing their job, reporting the news, after they were “criticized” by the victims families for airing less than 2 out of 26 minutes of footage the shooter sent to them.

7) Side stories that have arisen from this event, such as the disclosure that the NASPER database is being used to investigate citizens who have filled anti-depressant prescriptions; have fallen into the memory hole or ignored as though they never existed. What was an unexpected scoop regarding the privacy of all American citizens has turned into a non-story because the mainstream media do not wish to cover it.

8) Absolutely no research has been made into the academic careers of the shooter or his sister. What little we have seen of the shooter’s writings are juvenile at best and yet this young man was a creative writing major? What path led this ESL student into the challenging process of obtaining a BFA in Creative Writing?

9) How could the system of ensuring the safety of students at Virginia Tech fail so completely following years of warning signs that something was amiss with the shooter? This cannot be a sign of a systemic failure of the process at VaTech, something else is at work and he was allowed to stay at the behest of someone or some group.

The Fourth Estate has been asleep at the wheel for years and corporate ownership of the mainstream media has tightened the noose around the neck of any possible investigative journalistic efforts. What we are left with is a dark empty room from which no echo can even be produced.

Other blogs - Blackwater USA - Who's Private Idaho?

Relatively little media attention has been paid to the emergence of the Blackwater USA paramilitary group, but a recent posting at DailyKos provides an excellent overview to this group, it’s founder and it’s mission.

What is more troubling; the lack of oversight regarding the war profiteering money grab made by Blackwater owner Erik Price, or the fact that a billionaire extremist has his own private army complete with it’s own private air fleet?

News - Confirmation of the Cho/Unification Church Connection

(update by The CT Blogger - 5/7/2007 - New update on the shooter's background in the Evangelical movement can be found here)

Following a posted comment by one of the readers of the blog, there is more to add regarding the VaTech shooter’s connection to the Unification Church (Moonies).

The researcher who operates the Exod-US blog has discovered and posted details of the Unification Church connection The direct connection comes through Rev. David Kim, who you will note from a previous entry I made on Rev. Kim, was involved in the PR cover up upon the request of the shooter’s sister.

Exod-Us blog has also found much more detailed information regarding the Wellington Boone connection Via Manna Christian Fellowship, including a timeline of the movement and the Boone/Kim relationship.
(Hat tip to “Babalabo” for this story)